Fuentes de Vida – Veron, Domican Republic

The residents of Domingo Maiz worried every day about where their water came from and whether or not it was safe to drink and use. Cloud 9 Adventures hosts events in the Punta Cana region which enabled Positive Legacy to raise funds and therefore provide financial support for the Fuentes de Vida (or sources of life) project in Domingo Maiz, Veron. Launched in 2012, this 5-year intensive community development program aims to provide safe drinking water, wastewater treatment, and a solid waste management program for 500 people and 128 homes.

Puntacana Ecological Foundation, in collaboration with the Peace Corps & Virginia Tech, built a constructed wetland, a natural system that treats the community’s wastewater and insures that this wastewater will no longer filter into the local aquifer. This project is one of our most ambitious funding projects to date. Positive Legacy granted $25,500 to the project allowing the completion of the natural wastewater treatment system. This system utilizes grasses and native plants to naturally extract toxins in the water. The completion of the natural wastewater treatment facility which took place in 2014 is step one in the three step plan to provide a sustainable water system to the 500 residents of Domingo Maiz. Serving over 150 families, this project offers the first effective wastewater treatment system in the municipality and can be replicated in other communities throughout the region. The goal is to restore the aquifer therefore allowing residents to once again have safe, potable water for generations. Since our initial grant, we have contributed an additional $25,000 in 2014 to provide a clean water distribution plan for the community members, run by the community. The residents of Domingo Maiz will depend on this clean water distribution until their local aquifer has bounced back. Once Positive Legacy and their partners have seen this five-year project through the residents will have a functional waste water treatment facility, a solid waste management system, and safe drinking water. We hope that on completion this area will then provide other communities with a model of how to create these essentials in their own community.